Nomad Foods Limited ($NOMD)

Thanks, everybody, for joining us. Happy to welcome back Nomad Foods, so at least 1 new face Chief Executive Officer, Dominic Brisby, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having us as well as welcome back Rubin Baldo, Chief Financial Officer. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Let's dive in.

I guess, you have now been CEO for almost 6 months, or you've been with the company for almost 6 months as well. I guess, let's just start very high level, kind of first -- not so first impressions, but big takeaways at this point and big priorities that you've set for the company.

So I mean, the first impressions are when you look at Nomad what you have is a company which operates in a category which has many things going for it. So the categories have been in growth year after year after year by 2% or 3%. First quarter of this year, by the way, by 3.8%. So the category is in very good health. If you look at the brands, our brands in frozen a significantly stronger than any of our competitors. When you look at the brand equity. We also have a significantly bigger size than our competitors. And so there's an awful lot that's good about the company, and there's an awful lot to love about the company. However, it's also clear to say that Nomad has absolutely not performed in line with its potential. So everything I've been working on with Ruben and with the rest of the team is to get it back to its full potential. And there have been a few areas which I've been focusing on since I joined. The first is to get a very strong team in place. And so you'll be aware that I've made a number of changes to the executive team particularly in the commercial areas. So 3 new regional presidents who have a much stronger, much more aggressive commercial stance than probably was the case before. If you look at the marketing capability of Nomad previously, a lot of the campaigns were a slightly old fashioned in the media, but also lacking certain cut through in their execution. So I brought in a very high-caliber new Chief Marketing Officer. Interestingly, he was previously CMO of Publicis, but also who's a genuine expert on AI who's come into the business. So strengthening the team has been very important. Secondly, making sure that we're looking at the business in the right way. And that means changing certain things quite quickly, which had happened previously, certain bad behaviors which needed to be eradicated. So for example, putting stock into the market at the quarter end, that's something which is extremely unhelpful from a commercial point of view, but it takes a bit of pain to get out of it. We chose to take the pain in Q1 this year. So we've chosen to eradicate those bad behaviors and clean up the mess related to them, which, of course, had an impact, but it puts us in a much better shape going forward. And then making sure that we have a plan for the coming years, which we'll be presenting in our Investor Day in New York City in October, about how we can grow our business to a much greater extent than has been the case before. Of course, we're in a category which is already in growth, which is not that common in our sector right now, but the category is very healthy. but Nomad has been losing share within that category. And turning that around means having the right innovation, it means going into the right new geographies. If you look at Nomad, we're strong kind of in Germany and everywhere to the west of Germany to the south of Germany, but not much to the east. Making sure we have the right retailer partnerships. This has been something where Nomad has been quite weak historically. And then finally, making sure that we drive the right culture. Now the Nomad culture has been a very friendly culture, very collaborative and very inclusive. So there are good things about it. What it hasn't been is a culture that's really driven performance. And now this is not something which I want to claim will change overnight because it won't. There's an awful lot of work to do on this. But we've made big steps on this. And when I look at where I hope to be and the changes we're making in Nomad in the middle of this year, we're more or less exactly where I hoped we would be. And certainly, as we go into the remainder of the year, we're very confident in terms of what we'll deliver.

Got it. Great. On the team aspect, on the team changeovers you made, are you done? Or do you have more work to do to round out your leadership? .

So the kind of executive team level. So among my direct reports, we've done or largely done. There'll be -- I mean, so we've announced the existence of a new regional president for Central Europe. That person will be announced during the course of this month and will start in July there'll be a new Chief People Officer starting in October. But then at the top level, those changes will be done. But of course, we're working out how to get the best talent and the best structures further down the organization, but at the top level, we've done.

Great. So I guess, what are the milestones to watch for between now and Investor Day and year-end? And you obviously have fiscal 2016 guidance in place. But what is -- what does success look like X26 -- like what are your mile markers? .

So as we exit 26, there are very clear things that we need to have done. We need the right people in the right jobs, doing the right things. We need to have made meaningful inroads in terms of changing the culture. We need a very solid and coherent ambitious multiyear plan, which is what we'll be presenting at the end of this year. We need to reset some of the retailer relationships, and we can talk a bit more about that, if that's helpful. We need to have eradicated all the bad behaviors and cleaned up the bad behaviors, which is in the case -- in the example a game is largely done. And as a result of that, we need to enter the new year gaining a level of a significant level of top and bottom line growth. And of course, in the meantime, the other thing which we need to do is no mat is a business which has historically shown a remarkable ability to disappoint, and we want to delight not disappoint in the meantime. So that's also something which is very important in which we'll be focusing on.

Yes. Okay. So maybe in that context, put a pin in the retailer because I do want to come back to that. But Ruben, on -- there's been a lot of questions post 1Q just on the timing dynamics through the year. sell-in versus sell-out dynamics and the disconnects there. maybe just ground us in what we should expect through the year in terms of normalization of those trends just so that we don't have unintentional disappointments.

Not fully fully understand the question. So maybe take a step back and it links to what Dominic was just saying, -- if you look at Nomad, maybe at the end of '23 over '24, there were these sales centers at the end of the quarter and actually increasing stock levels at trade. And last year, you've seen that we actually started to destock -- that's also clearly no fix lap because we need to improve our competitiveness. But last year, our sellout was flat. Our sell-in was minus 2%. And the difference of that majority was destocking. Now what Dominic just said, in quarter 1, this is the quarter where we actually stopped those sales incentives. And what you then see in quarter 1, in December 25, there was still a bit of ordering of retailers ahead of price increase. So you have then the dip in January. And March, we didn't do sales incentives. So you have that dip. So the quarter 1 is where we took our medicine. So a big part of that decline, we saw minus 5.3% was of that. Again, sell-out in quarter 1 and no victory laps was flat. There's a bit of phasing in there. But underlying, we're taking our medicine. We also had a bit of a retaliation because actually, we said, look, in this negotiation, we will also send a signal to the retail that we're holding our back and we're taking the pricing seriously, and we want that to come through. That's now behind us. So in the first weeks of May, all the pricing has now landed orders are fully back from retailers. Then if I can combine that question a little bit what to watch for in the remaining of the year. So quarter 1, we took our medicine. We stopped the kind of retaliation. We stopped the sales incentive. In quarter 2, you see that coming now back fully from the first week of May. Then in quarter 3, what you will then see is pricing fully coming through. You remember last year, we had a bit of a disappointing out-of-home ice cream, bit weather, a bit of unrest. So mix, you should see an improvement. So that will also, therefore, help kind of step up in absolute profit good.

Yes. Okay. And on the -- I mean, the other big question in here and now, I think, is the pricing that you've put in place relative to consumer demand, the concerns about volume, concerns about share loss concerns about private labor like private label reaction in the market. How are you -- what's your base case? And what have you seen so far to hopefully validate that base case? .

Yes. Before we go to, I want to make 1 point quite clear and also with new leadership of Dominic. And with highlight, everyone has knowledge. But -- if you look how normal price in '22, '23, you can actually see that our gross profit per kilogram went up after inflation. So with Hiten, you could say, were overpriced. We've seen always private label following. It can be time like 3 months, 6 months, 7 months, but they didn't follow to the same extent because they didn't have to. And I want to be absolutely clear now we will not over price. And this is also why we're so passionate around our savings program where, for example, in March, we announced that a lot of our marketing, where we saw duplication, we see savings opportunities there. you might have seen as opposed balance sheet event that we announced the closure of a factory. So we're patient in terms of driving savings in order not to overprice. Now it's too early to see when private label follow. We see now our price in the first weeks of May coming through to retailers. It's then at their discretion to increase pricing. We do think that the inflation we're seeing and the pricing we're taking is generic price -- a generic inflation. So we'll hit private label at least to the same extent. It's a bit too early to see when that will come. But I also want to make clear that in terms of our guidance, we've taken kind of sufficient buffer to cope with that.

Very good. Dan, let's go back to retail relationships and evolving them from, I think, what has been more transaction relationship to now 1 where you're looking to, I think, for lack of a better word, become more partners with those retailers, joint business planning, more ingrained with retailer strategy. I guess how does that play out from an execution standpoint? What are you doing to make that evolution? And where is it going to show up in terms of in-market change that's going to benefit the brands? .

Yes. So like -- I mean, like any relationship, if 1 only looks at it from one's own perspective, it may not end well. And I think talking to retailers, and I've been spending an awful lot of my time going around speaking to different retailers across Europe. One of the consistent pieces of feedback I'm getting is that Historically, Nomad would come to the retailer looking at things very much from their point of view. I need to increase prices. I need to launch this brand but wouldn't necessarily look at things from the retailer's point of view. And of course, in that transactional relationship, when things are tough or when things really need to develop together you're not going to be the first person the retailer comes to -- and so what -- and by the way, this isn't going to happen overnight, but what we're now saying to retailers is we want to work with them to grow the category together with them, but also to bring innovation and excitement to the category. If you look at the frozen food aisle in Europe, it's not that different to how it was when I was a kid. It's many similar products, even the merchandising is not that sophisticated. If you look at it in the U.S., if you go to a Walmart or particularly through a trade at Joe's or something like this, it's a genuinely exciting place to go shopping. It's got wonderful innovation, wonderful different types of products. And so we need to work with the retailer to make the category more exciting to help them grow the category but also where they have other objectives, whether it's ESG objectives or other objectives to help them achieve those. Now once we do that with retailers, and this has worked very well in the previous company, I was in as well. Once we do that with retailers, then, a, things start from a position, much more of trust than of transaction. Secondly, we have the depth of insight that we can really use to help them grow things. And thirdly, nobody really can do this accept us in terms of frozen because we're the absolute undisputed leader in frozen in Europe. And when we started raising this with retailers that we're very keen to work with them on this, we found we're really pushing against an open door. So there's a great first for retailers to have the expertise of Nomad to help drive this and to behave in a different way. And this will certainly help the retailer, but it will certainly help no bad at the same time.

And where are the gaps to get there? Is it getting the right information to have that conversation with the retailer? Is it the ability to execute on the innovation that is demanded by that information? What -- where are the gaps -- so it starts with a deep understanding of what the retailer actually wants.

So how they see the role of the frozen category within that business. Secondly, using the benefit of our data, which is probably second to none within this category and our deep consumer insights, which we certainly have in Nomad to help see where there can be scope for cooperation. Thirdly, being willing not to take a one-size-fits-all approach. Now, of course, a very small retailer, we might need to do that. But where there's a very significant retailer either very significantly in 1 country or very significant across Europe. We have to have the willingness, which we now do. to invest in both people and teams support at the point of sale, making sure that we may give them exclusivity in certain products for periods of time and to move that relationship forward in that way. So making sure that we hit Nomad's objectives. -- but also making sure we're very clear about what the retailer's objectives are and how we carry them out.

Yes. It sounds like you have the capabilities, you just need to build the trust and understanding what the retailers to be able to enact plans that have a benefit for both of you.

So we certainly have the data. We certainly have the insight. I think we're now bringing in people who have deep capabilities. So for example, Simon Ball is running the U.K. business now. He spent his entire career in food. He spent a big chunk of his career as a retailer himself and has literally grown up with the retailers, yes. So to have that level of depth of understanding, I think, will help us. And it's interesting that the strength of retailer ship varies somewhat within the NoMad markets. In the U.K., we've got a long way to go in Germany, we've got a long way to go. So we're making sure we put particular investments in those areas.

Got it. On the marketing front, you mentioned some changes already from a personnel standpoint. There seems to be just a lot of simplification that you're trying to achieve in marketing. Maybe walk us through what you're changing? And I guess, what does better marketing look like for a you're quite right. .

So if you look at where Nomad has come from a marketing, Nomad has a good set of cards to play. So -- if you look at brand equity, if you look at awareness, if you look at the level of household penetration, we're way, way above in the frozen categories in any of our branded competitors. However, it's also the case that no matter has taken pretty old-fashioned approach to marketing. A lot of TV commercials rather than doing things properly on digital and via influencers -- and actually, if you look at the communication, I spent a lot of time when I was looking at this job myself, looking at the quality of the communication. And I came to the view that if I was not personally very interested in Nomad Foods, it's like I would have not remembered a great deal of it. And so there clearly needed to be changed. Now there was also added to that, the fact that there have been enormous numbers of people in marketing, across Nomad with very dissipated authority and trying to focus on numerous different brands at the same time. So all people with good intentions working hard and trying to do the best. But what it meant is that the budgets were split -- dissipated among enormous numbers of places instead of focusing on the things that really make the difference. Now if you look at our A&P as a percentage of net revenue, it's about 4%, which is -- it's not a dramatically high number, but it's a perfectly reasonable number for a business of this type. However, then when I came and looked beneath the surface of this, -- about 40% of this was spent on what we call nonworking A&P. So sort of research projects, management, consultants, agencies, all of these kind of things. So 1 of the first steps has been to reduce that nonworking A&P, put it towards working. The next step is to make sure that we have real cut through in what we're doing, we're using the right media to target the right consumers effectively. And concurrently with that, we've also heavily reduced the total number of employees in marketing, mainly because we want people to be forced to focus on the things that matter and be forced to defocus on the things that don't matter. So almost 50% in the past kind of month or so, almost 50% of the people who were working in marketing, we've now exited the business. That's also helped as a cost-saving measure, but the greater measure is it will force us to be focused. Yes. What about when you dug into the marketing and you looked at it by geography, by brands, but is this -- was the spending proportional? Or is that also work that has to be done?

So that's also been reallocated. And we've taken immediate steps to reallocate that this year so we get more bang for our book -- now as we're going into next year, 1 of the things we're focusing on, which won't come -- I mean, obviously, we'll talk about our investor, but it won't come as a surprise. We're looking at how we can expand our total addressable market. Which are the categories which really need big support which are the categories which might be lower margin and need less support. And also, the other thing, which I'm very keen on is you'd expect Nomad as an international food company or even any kind of international consumer goods company that we'd have a fairly similar portfolio from market to market in a fairly similar set of brand propositions, and we don't. So if you look at the U.K., we cover most bases in terms of frozen food. If you look at Germany, almost 90% of the business is fish and vegetables. People in Germany also eat chicken, and they also eat pizza. So before we need to -- before we start doing anything really clever, there's also the ability just to lift and shift existing successful products and brand concepts that we've got from 1 market to another.

Yes. Now to some extent, that's that's been talked about before. It's not a new concept for Nomad, but it hasn't maybe happened at the pace that it could have. What have been the constraints? And how quickly do you think you can actually make good on those things. So I'm certain we can make good on it quickly.

And you'll see from me and my team a force of well in doing that. There have, however, been some constraints in terms of how Nomad's operated. I mean 1 of them, which I've spoken about previously is the sort of presentation of no matter as a kind of health food company. Now I should also stress that that's not completely wrong. So I think we're very fortunate at Nomad that, particularly when we look at some of these big consumer trends, about 70% of our net sales comes from lean protein and vegetables. And as we look at the impact of GLP-1, as we look at the fact people need to eat more protein, that's a very good position to be in. However, even if you eat a lot of protein and vegetables every day, it may still be that on Friday night, you'd like to have a slice of pizza. And when we're selling Pizza needs to be pizza that taste good and people don't tend to eat pizza because of its health benefits. So we're very happy to be selling very healthy products, and we think it's a great source of competitive advantage. But within that, we also see room for indulgence and for people to have the occasional treat within that. And so we're kind of unshackling the business in terms of some of our guidelines there. Is there a now versus future state health versus indulgence split of the portfolio that you see? And how big is that expanded addressable market if you were to make good on it? Well, so my view is it's our job to give the consumers what they want rather than to tell them what they ought to eat. And I consider we have a right to play in every frozen category, certainly in every savory frozen casualty, our ice cream, you make question. But certainly, in every savory frozen category. So where the business is now and where we anticipate it will be -- you'll see us pushing into more categories than we are in now and doing that in a fairly ambitious way.

Okay. Is there a -- from just ramping up, if you were to put Pizza in Germany. At what point do you have to build capacity in Germany, fine partners in Germany to produce? Or can you ship or you have enough capacity in other places to supply? .

I mean it's 1 of the things with no matter is we're not short of -- 1 thing we're not short of is capacity because if you look at the business over the past few years, volumes have gone down. The number of factories have stayed fairly similar. And so actually, we have a very good amount of capacity in all the categories where we operate. So that's not an issue. And 1 thing that we've -- I mean, literally from this year being rather more forceful on is the willingness to close factories where they're not operating at capacity. And still, if you look at the size of our business and the number of factories we have, Certainly, Ruben and I and the Chief Supply Chain Officer, see further scope for efficiencies there.

Okay. And to the extent that it grows, it obviously almost helps pay for itself because your fixed cost utilization goes -- very good. Ruben, kind of on topic of margins, can we talk a little bit about the cost inflation outlook that you're seeing and how it's evolving, given dynamics in the Middle East and direct and indirect impacts of that. I guess what is your latest cost outlook and how that impacts maybe to some extent, the second half, but then also how it impacts how you're plotting for 2027?

Yes. So cost outlook is mid-single digit. That was -- at the start of the year, we said around mid-single digit, maybe that's gone up by 1% or so, but we're still around that mid-single digit. Also I want to be clear a couple of things. One is where we are now, we're 80% to 90% covered. So if anything, if it hits us, it's kind of second half quarter 4. So it's not a -- we got a comfort for this year. The other point I would say is -- if you look at our cost base and especially if you look at raw materials and packaging, a lot of our cost base is actually protein fish. Alaska Polo comes from the ocean between Russia and U.S., nothing to do with the Stratham. So I'm not saying there's 0 impact, but actually what we are seeing in our commodities, proteins, fish, also harvest-related crop, it's not a big impact for this year. And where we are seeing inflation, it's more on fish. And then to the point, we will make sure we'll drive cost savings. We'll make sure that we also have alternatives like we see opportunities to do savings projects potentially on our fish that we won't price more than private label. And honestly, I think, Steve, for 2027, it's just too early because the scenarios on how long this conflict will go through how it relates to our bill of material. Again, a lot of our spend is actually things outside things rate to the trade of farmers, it's just too early to tell.

But I guess -- I mean, I would -- I don't if to the extent that costs do build in snowball, it doesn't strike me your -- any of your exposure would misely put you at a disadvantage relative to your competency if anything, maybe the opposite. SP-7 Exactly because of also where we see currently a bit of more inflation is on fish. And we actually think we might be hit less than private label because we know some of the private label sourced from a different kind of supply base where energy is actually more impacted, and we might have a bit of coverage on the dollar exchange rate. So -- we'll keep a close eye on what we're seeing in private label, but we should not have more inflation than private level. Okay. Cash discipline, not new to Nomad, a little all and strong free cash flow conversion has been a hallmark. I guess as we're thinking through the transition of this year and the growth initiatives that Dominic has conceptualized for the future, I guess how are we thinking about cash generation? I guess what should we anchor on as just the drivers of the free cash flow durability, both to fund shareholder returns, but also fund these growth initiatives.

Yes. So as you said, this company has had a good cash delivery, good cash conversion. We have a guidance out there for 90%, which we're driving hard, and we're committed to. So that's one. if you look underlying on some of those drivers, we're happy with the progress on working capital. We see improvement also what Dominic has said on the basic in place, better commercial teams in terms of forecasting and how that helps on inventory. But I think a big driver and is also something we said at the end of last year is outside the cash conversion, which is on adjusted profit. Actually, we see a big opportunity to lower the cash expenditures related to nonrecurring -- and we used to spend almost 80 in nonrecurring, and we said we can half that. And maybe this year, it's not exactly half, might be going down from EUR 80 lotion and we're delivering on that. So this is not only talk. If you look at our quarter 1 nonrecurring, it was EUR 9.9 million. And actually, within that, because I'm quite passionate that we don't use that as a parking lot just to put expenses in 5 million, 6 million was related to what Dominic just mentioned, this marketing organization where we sold the application. That will give us a saving almost of more than EUR 11 million, but also leads to that speed of decision-making and all of that. So we see you also going forward for next year, the opportunity to lower our nonrecurring, and we're happy with our cash delivery.

Okay. Are there -- we've talked in the past about different muscles that have been revenue growth management. Dominic referenced strong data foundation for consumer insights. Are there investments that need to be made, maybe not in the very medium term, but that you see in the horizon in order to build capabilities where you think there's a tremendously unappreciated ROI or areas where you feel like you're just behind the curve? .

So if you talk about investment like system, all of that, actually, 1 of the drives where I said we can go down from a kind of EUR 80 million to EUR 40 million nonrecurring is we're quite passionate that if we talk about transformation project, it's about processes first, data follows after that and then systems. And we want our own teams to run that. instead of a team of consultants and external people, and we're executing on that. So I give you an example. In our finance processes, actually, the team themselves are looking at invoices, which are being processed touchless, where you lose -- AI is a big buzzword and you use technology like OCR and the invoices get recognized and it's dockless processing. That leads to savings, but it's actually run by the local finance team and they make drive those initiatives themselves. -- how we do journal entries. We have a CMO has huge experience in terms of AI, how you mimic consumer cohorts. And we don't think we need huge investments on that place. We need our local teams, our own functional teams to be curious to use what we have there in terms of data and then use existing tools on AI, which are out there for not huge price tax.

Dominic, with the cash that's generated right now, it doesn't make sense for a lot of reasons to be focused on inorganic opportunities. But as you think of the 3- to 5-year outlook, how much of what you see on the table can be accomplished organically and versus rounding up the portfolio potentially with inorganic initiatives?

See, as you said, right now, until we prove ourselves, we're quite clear. We don't have the license for inorganic growth. And also, we're going to be highly disciplined on anything we do. And of course, while we're so cheap not less cheap. It's not going to happen. . As we look to the future, of course, we're building up a plan, and we believe there's enormous scope to grow organically. But as we get valued higher, and the business begins to perform and the market sees this. there are many opportunities that we could see. But right here right now, our focus is on running the business properly and delivering organic growth as we go forward.

Yes. given that, I mean, the historical focus from an inorganic perspective of Nomad has been either bolting on adjacent geographies or bolting on adjacent categories within the existing geographies. Any reason to think differently than that in terms of when the time is right for that to be the focus of the company. .

I mean I think those -- those are the lowest risk forms of M&A, the forms of M&A, which are likely to have the most synergies. So the answer is probably not. However, once everyone can see what Nomad can do, I wouldn't take other things off the table either, but not in any immediate sense.

And in the near term, prioritization for excess cash, I would assume is I mean after reinvestments in these initiatives is to buy back the existing stock. I mean, other than the dividend? .

So we have been doing buybacks. Last year, we did a bit of buybacks in quarter 1 because the stock is cheap. By the way, it's not only the companies buying stock also Dominic and myself put money where our mouth is, and we bought shares ourselves. So that's always something we're going to look at, but we also have to be cognizant of that the leverage was in quarter 1, around 3.9%. So we're going to follow through balance that with our leverage and make sure we're not overleveraged.

Okay. Remind me, we have -- any maturity is coming due? Or is the maturity schedule?

So we did a refinancing H2 last year on the terms level -- so they are now refinanced, I would say, pretty good terms. Our bonds will come up for maturity in June 28. Now clearly, we're not going to wait like 6 or 12 months before. So we're looking at that. That is a bond of EUR 800 million with a coupon of 2.5%. And -- with the refinancing last year, we had a bit of excess liquidity. Our cash flow is pretty good. So we have to look -- will it be a ticket size of 800 or potentially less. And we're looking at that, and we're not going to be penny-wise panful try to save the last man of interest versus maybe missing the market.

Okay. I didn't mention this. I didn't go here earlier, and maybe I should have it would have flow better. But on the -- you've reaffirmed your $200 million cost efficiency goals. And I think you've said those are on track. I guess as you go further into the program and as you make additional changes, I mean, are there I guess what are the biggest remaining cost pools within that program? And is there upside potential? .

Yes. So look, if you look at the tournament and again, we'll come back in autumn with a more extensive communication on our next 3 to 4 years' program and the drives within that, including the savings project. But if you look at what we communicated last time, within that overhead was 20 to 35, we're on track. And I think we're more tracking towards kind of the higher end of the range than the lower end of the range. The remainder of that was clearly supply chain. And within that, you had EUR 100 million of procurement, and I think that's roughly equally phased I think again, and it comes a bit back, and you asked discussion you had the question, okay, how do we avoid it. Not everyone has an opinion. While what Dominic just said with the executive team, they are executive members. And we actually run the business with the 2 of us, 3 presidents in the region, CMO supply chain, and there we make the decision. So there, we're going to have the trade-off. Look, we have an opportunity to do a harmonization of a coating project because we use different coatings because in the past, there was a lot of local initiatives that could generate $6 million of savings or now with some potential fish inflation. -- we could do something with Pangasius and launch a snacking range. By the way, you also make sure it's not a 1 dementia price discussion. You actually help the retailer -- so we're going to drive all of that. So I think in that program, the procurement savings, we have been delivering. We will continue to deliver by making the right trade-offs in terms of price, value and quality. And then there's all the factory bid. And what Dominic has said, if there's 1 thing we don't have an issue with this capacity. So we're looking at in-sourcing, we're looking at closing factories. This company has not been closing factories. Now in the last 12 months, we announced 2 closures. We'll look at more closures. The third bit is we're going to look at rightsizing the bigger ones. And maybe the last bit and that comes back to our strategy. There are certain channels like food service or maybe we go for banded heart discount a bit harder. -- to make sure we fill factories because to your point, it's a fixed cost base, we can leverage. And actually, by leveraging that, we become more competitive in our branded retail. So yes, we're going to do that.

Okay. Just a couple of minutes left. I want to go back to essentially culture. And the changes you're trying to make, Nomad has been a business that's been through a lot. I mean a lot of business have been through the last half a decade plus. But no matter seems to have -- we've seen lots of change. And what we're talking about now is a lot more change. How has the organization responded? What is the energy behind the changes? And how are you positioning the future directions to energize rather than alienate the employee base.

It's a very good point. And you're right. I mean, Nomad had plenty of change before I took over and it even more now. What we're seeing is -- of course, in any organization where change takes place, that can be quite difficult. And it can be difficult on a personal level particularly if there have been restructurings going on. And I think there's been no exception in Nomad. The other thing is, and I said this publicly name the other day, there may be some very, very fine people and superb human beings who decide being in a more aggressive, more commercially agile business may just not be for them. It's not a reflection of them as people, but it's an absolute defined outcome. However, what we are seeing increasingly now is that as the teams start to see the changes we're making, start to see the caliber of the people we bring in start to pick up the first snippets of the strategy because, of course, we haven't either internally or externally publicly gone through it. they've started to see that this is going to be a very exciting place to work and also that from a kind of personal value creation perspective, but also as a kind of exciting place to be. This is going to be a very fun journey for the next few years. And the 1 thing I would say is when you look at least in market share terms or if you look at it in household penetration terms or if you look at it in share price terms Nomad hasn't been a winning team over the past few years. And there's nothing more fun than being part of a winning team. So everything we're doing is to turn Nomad into a winning team. We're convinced that we will do -- and actually, what we're seeing internally is the right people are getting very excited about this and very energized by.

Very good. So now we really have a couple of minutes left. Maybe it sounds like we're going to pick up a lot of these threads in October. But I guess what would you leave investors with as kind of the key to be continued to think about as they think about it, no matter as an investment opportunity from here. .

So it's pretty simple. So frozen food in Europe is a superb category. -- growing year after year, quarter after quarter by 2% or 3% a year, in fact, a bit more than that recently. Nomad has the best brands in the category. By far, we have the best products in the category by far. And yet, Nomad has lost share over the past few years. Everything we're doing now is to regain and rebuild that market share, even if you believe that we can only hold market share in this growing category, there still will be transformative for the share price. And if you believe, which I hope people will start to believe as we prove it that we can do more, this can be very, very exciting indeed. The measure of how exciting it is, is how much the insiders have invested. And you can see because it's public knowledge -- the 2 Chairman have invested nonexecutive directors have invested, Ruben has invested, I have invested. And to me, this is much more powerful than any narrative we can give. We're very excited by the future of Nomad. We believe it trades heavily below its intrinsic value, and we believe there's a lot of upside.

That's a perfect way to end it, and we're right on time. So thank you very much. .

Thank you so much. Thanks.